Has anybody studied deminshing returns of co2 in the atmosphere?

Question

I know from my study of agriculture and economics (my degree is in agricultural economics) that any variable input results in diminishing returns when input is added at a higher and higher level. Has anyone studied atmospheric co2 in this manner? In agriculture, which is a natural science, if any variable (such as water or nitrogen) results in diminishing returns when added at higher and higher levels. I have received the same results in econometric models when variables are added when building econometric models. My hypothesis is that increasing levels of atmospheric co2 will result in global cooling not global warming. Any comments? Any research in this area?

Answer 1

The point you make about diminishing returns is correct but increasing greenhouse gas levels won't lead to global cooling, instead any increase will lead to increased global warming on a scale tending to zero.

However, long before the zero point was reached we'd have all died from asphyxiation.

The three gases nitrogen, oxygen and argon account a little over 99.9% of the atmosphere, these do not contribute to global warming. Carbon dioxide and all other GHGs make up about 0.05% of the atmosphere so there's massive potential for increasing the levels of GHGs. There's also massive potential for increasing the amount of gas in the atmosphere - this would just lead to an expansion of the atmosphere further into space and higher pressures.

A similar event has been witnessed on Pluto where in the last 14 years atmospheric pressure has tripled and there has been intense warming, we don't know exactly what's caused it but we can study the effects.

Because levels of GHG's are so small in comparison to the atmosphere as a whole, any increase in GHG levels will lead to an almost identical contribution to global warming. It would take too long to work out precise figures but a 100% rise in GHGs would lead over 99% increase in the contribution they make to global warming.

Answer 2

Diminishing returns? Are you talking about the amount of energy that is being reflected back to Earth? If so, diminishing returns would just be -diminishing. They won't be negative and contribute to global cooling. Also, the levels of CO2 are very low -379 parts per million. If the concentrations would have been much higher this would be a much more likely scenario.
I have not heard of any research in to this, which is an interesting and important question, but I would be surprised if there weren't.
Try IPCC, they might have it.
http://www.ipcc.ch/

Answer 3

"diminished return" means the temperature just stops getting hotter as more CO2 is added. I'm sure there is a point where temperatures rise no higher. Check out the link. It looks like +10 C is all CO2 can do, even if the concentration is many times the present. I'm guessing it has something to do with cloud cover. Higher temperatures mean greater evaporation, more clouds, and, therefore, more sunlight is reflected.

Keep in mind, though, that 10C (18F) is a lot. We're talking rain forests in Ohio. Unless triceratops and 8 foot long centipedes make a comeback, most life on earth would not adapt quickly enough.

Answer 4

When I put two blankets on my bed, I was warmer than with just one. Not necessarily twice as warm, but warmer. When it is very cold, three blankets is nice. But even if I crushed myself beneath thousands of blankets, I would not get cooler...unless I died, or course.

I think this is practical research. In my bedroom lab.

In agriculture, too much nitrogen diminishes growth and may kill the plant.

In an area of interest, "diminishing returns" mean for each increment added, the ADDED result is less, until the system saturates and then the more you add the results stay static. Does not ever go down if it follows the law. Just saturates.

Answer 5

while you are in the lab, throw some CO2 into some water vapor and watch what happens.
while you are doing that, try working with several other greenhouse gases, not just CO2.
I believe the real threat of CO2, is not only that it boost the heat trapping ability of water vapor, but there is a range of about 380 - 565 ppm CO2, that plants maximize many of their biological processes. as you exceed 565 ppm, the CO2 concentration starts becoming more and more harmful to plants, and their symbiotic fungi that provides them with micronutrients that is fixed from the surrounding environment.

and oh...by the way, the stratosphere, where CO2 is most responsible for conditions, is cooling.

Answer 6

You are correct, when more CO2 is added each additional molecule has less of an effect as more is added. I don't have a study linked about it, but I have seen quite a few articles that seem to suggest this. This is why I laugh at the graphs comparing temperature to CO2 because there isn't a linear correlation from what I understand about the subject.